Does anyone else find that they end up helping other guest in the parks?

[Cherinva]

I do, yes...when needed. Sometimes people get turned around and aren't sure where to go, or they can't find the restaurant...I'm glad to help.

 

[Becx N Gav]

I agree. It may be intentional! There's a running joke in my family. When one family member was very young, instead of saying the Swan/Dolphin, she mistakenly called them, "The Fish" and "The Duck." We loved it.

Some time later, we were on the bus trading this joke and, I might add, obviously LAUGHING about it! Some obnoxious woman felt the need to 'correct' us - in a rather snooty tone. She was the one who ended up looking bad. I don't try to be mean, but in this case we couldn't help ourselves. We all just laughed out loud at her. (We were a pretty large group.)

That is amusing, I am annoyed by people who 'butt' in too. DH and I were talking between ourselves on a bus ride to MK (Dec 2008 I think) and were pointing out the BLT construction, we had read about it (being DVC members) and were imagining what it would look like. A lady behind us was convinced the TOTWL was going to be a restaurant (I am sure at this point they had said it was a lounge). I couldn't be bothered to correct her but it was annoying that she interupted with mis-information.

I'm more than happy to help people though (if they ask or look like they need it) but would never dream of butting in

 

[dmccarty]

Just back and we helped quite a few people.

At the pool at AKV the obvious way to get to the pool is down a couple sets of stairs. I saw at least three groups trying to get large strollers down those stairs and each time I pointed out the way to the ramp. The ramp is not obvious and the people were all happy to know there was an easier way.

If I hear someone who is obviously lost in the parks or at the resorts I will help them out. I know I did it a couple of times but I cannot remember the details.

The biggy this trip was at EPCOT. The DW and I went over on Sunday for F&W. At the fountain we started walking near a group of people from either China or Japan as we made our way to the WS. I could never quite figure out which country they were from.

As we got half way to WS, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, two of the women in the group run off to the side of the walkway towards a bench. I THINK I heard one of them say there was a person on the ground. Their movement is what caught my eye since it was very rapid and towards west instead of south. As I took a step I had a fleeting glimpse of a person on the ground. Another step and I would not have seen the person. I THINK the ladies saw the women fall down.

Since in one of my jobs I am a First Responder I went over to see what is up.

Sure enough there was a women on the ground right next to one of the concrete benches and planters. Not good at all. She obviously was having a seizure. Thankfully it did not appear that she had hit her head on the bench or planters. I am guessing she felt the seizure coming so she tried to sit down but did not make it to the bench.

The people from Japan/China where trying their best to get help but obviously there was a language barrier. The women was "just" having a seizure and was not having problems breathing. Training kicked in and I told the DW to call 911. Then I remembered there was a CM we had just walked past. I think she was helping with the Kim Possible reservations. DW yelled at the CM that we had a person on the ground having a seizure.

That "announcement" brought over not one. Not two. Not three. But FOUR nurses.

The CM was a bit panicky calling in for help. The women was still in the midst of her seizure but it was getting better. I and the nurses kept her from bumping her head on the ground, bench and planters. We were talking to her but she was not able to respond. She had a lanyard around her neck that I could not remove but it looked like it had some ID. The ID had a screen name from a website that is not the DISBoards. But the ID sounded very familiar. An ID I had seen on the DISBoards.

About this time she started to come out of the seizure and started to struggle to sit up and regain control. As she sat up I ask if she was XXXXX on the DISBoards. She was not able to respond but she was able to focus on me as I asked her questions. Within a short period of time the paramedics showed up and the herd of nurses left. The women was never able to respond to me but she was much better. I stayed a bit longer and chatted with the paramedics a bit. They said they knew her and treat her often. Which surprised me.

With the women in good hands we went to eat around the world.

The next day, Monday, we went back to EPCOT and eat around the world again. And at about the same time as on Sunday.

When we got off the bus and made it almost to the bathrooms near the bus stops we noticed a women on the ground with a few guests and security guards attending. Another guard was obviously waiting to guide the ambulance to them. At a distance I could barely see the woman on the ground but I told DW that it looked like XXXXX again! She agreed. I went over and indeed it was XXXXX! Her seizure was ending so I went and told the guard waiting for the ambulance what I knew about her. The ambulance pulled in and off we went.

That night I searched the Inet and indeed XXXXX is a member on the DISBoard but has not posted in quite some time. According to her profile it appears she has moved to be close to WDW. The lanyard and ID she had was of a different website I did not recognize but I don't think it was Disney related.

A search showed quite a few people with the same ID as the lady having seizures so she might not have been a DISBoards member but she certainly focused on me when I was asking her about The DIS.

There was a DIS member meeting on that Sunday. I was going to go but got caught up with the family so I missed the get together. I wonder if XXXXXX had gone to the meeting at Poly.

Later,
Dan

 

[rhyeck]

Last month... while waiting in line for Soarin'... I met the 2 nicest 'older' gals EVER! They both had on "First Timer" pins and I welcomed them to WDW!! They were SO excited that someone (other than a CM) noticed. They told me that they felt like Princesses!!! They were nervous about riding Soarin'. So, I explained the ride, helped them put their bags under their seats, belted them in and they LOVED Soarin'. After the ride... they had tons of questions. I spent about 30 mintues with them. I explained (and ended up showing them) the FastPass system, how the dining plan worked, extra magic hours, etc. They were SO cute!!! Oh... they didn't know Spaceship Earth was a ride... so I walked them to the BIG GOLF BALL (as they called it) and went on my merry way. It was a JOY to help them!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

What a story dmccarty!

 

[dmccarty]

What a story dmccarty!

Yeah it really was an interesting trip! DW got sick. Needed to go to a DocNTheBox. Tried to go but the car battery had run down. Had to jump start said car but by then DocNTheBox had closed so she had to wait until the next day.

I have seen a person down in the parks before but it was being handled already. But to see the same person down two days in a row is something else.

Course what was more amazing was that my youngest and I rode EE with one set of FPs. We were at the end of the train and the CM at the controls at the end of the ride heard my youngest talk about how great the ride was and wanted to go again. I told her we did not have another set of FPs so we had to go meet up with the family in DinoLand so we could not wait in standby.

The CM gave us some FPs!

We then went to ride Primal Whirl and waited in line for 30 minutes. No FPs that day. The CM at the top of the ramp started talking to both our kids. She asked which ride they liked the best. They said they loved PW! The CM gave us FPs.

Two rides in a row and we got FP from CMs. Never had that happen ONCE much less twice.

It must have been our Karma Award for helping the person with Epilepsy. Forgot to mention that in my previous post. The lady had an alert bracelet saying she had Epilepsy.

Later,
Dan

 

[mickeyluv'r]

It must have been our Karma Award for helping the person with Epilepsy. Forgot to mention that in my previous post. The lady had an alert bracelet saying she had Epilepsy.

Later,
Dan

Indeed. Perhaps you should post your story over in the "parades are for kids..." thread. I think a few folks over there could use this message. (I just came from that one...PHEW!)

Glad to hear your trip was *mostly* great.

I too have seen someone fall - It was bad: a mom with a baby in a baby carrier. The CM's were on her in a flash! Faster than anyone else could get over to her. It was simply amazing. (note to self: never use a baby carrier in a theme park with curbs or cobblestone. Actually now whenever I see someone using one of those baby carriers, the image of that lady pops in my head and I'm tempted to tell that story.

 

[AllyGirl_79]

I most often find myself giving advice after I start talking to people about other things. These conversations seem to start a lot at Disney in lines, waiting for parades, etc. (While I don't feel the urge to talk to strangers on the bus at home, it seems to happen naturally at Disney!) It's amazing how often you start chatting and learn that the person you're talking to is brand new to the parks. I've given restaurant advice, suggested touring plans, and solved some problems with my fairly pathetic French language skills.

The most fun I ever had with this was about three years ago. We met a family in line for Turtle Talk with Crush and started talking about the attraction when they asked if we had been there before. Next thing I know, we're making suggestions on where they should have dinner. Turns out, they had nothing planned beyond park tickets. We ended up meeting again later at the Poly by the pool, completely by accident. My friend hung out with dad/kids at the pool, while the mom and I went to the concierge and made character dining reservations, MVMCP plans, and kid's club reservations for the week! It was like getting to plan an extra trip. I was in Disney geek heaven.

 

[dmccarty]

Indeed. Perhaps you should post your story over in the "parades are for kids..." thread. I think a few folks over there could use this message. (I just came from that one...PHEW!)

Glad to hear your trip was *mostly* great.

I too have seen someone fall - It was bad: a mom with a baby in a baby carrier....

Baby story first. We were waiting to eat at Sanaa at AKV. There is a large staircase going up from Sanaa to the lobby. A father was walking up the stairs with a wee little baby and the father stumbled and ALMOST fell. The baby was asleep but when the father stumbled the baby woke up since his head was jerked as the father recovered from the fall. It could have been much much much worse. Scared the you know what out of me. Sure it was much worse for the father.

The only bad part of our trip was the DW getting sick. But it had a silver lining. We at an 0730 reservation at Cape May for a character breakfast the day after the DW tried to go to the DocNTheBox. If she had not had to go to the doc we would not have found out that the car battery was dead until the morning of the reservation. The only way we could have gotten to Cape May in time would have been to take two taxis. Not sure we would have made it even then. So the DW getting sick had a good side.

Other than that we had a really great trip. 97 out of 100 at least. Well there was the bus issue at MK at 9:00pm on Saturday. The road to AKV/AKL was closed and there were a couple hundred people trying to get back to the resort. NO buses. We saw multiple buses pull in for other resorts but none for AKV/AKL. The crowd started chanting BUS! BUS! BUS!

Four buses showed up ASAP. They stacked the buses up to load us all up. Funny thing was I timed the wait. We only waited 30 minutes but we were towards the back of the herd. The people up front certainly waited longer. Maybe 45 minutes. Kinda long but much worse after a long day in the park and late at night with kids. This was the only real Disney negative we had in the trip and it really was not that big of a deal.

I saw the discussion about the Parades are for kids. I did not even bother to read it. I knew that thread would quickly go downhill FAST.

Later,
Dan

 

[mytripsandraces]

Other than that we had a really great trip. 97 out of 100 at least. Well there was the bus issue at MK at 9:00pm on Saturday. The road to AKV/AKL was closed and there were a couple hundred people trying to get back to the resort. NO buses. We saw multiple buses pull in for other resorts but none for AKV/AKL. The crowd started chanting BUS! BUS! BUS!

Was that the night of October 2nd? There were road closures that night for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. We had to be on the buses by 8 for the 10pm start, because the roads were shut down for a while after 8.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I saw the discussion about the Parades are for kids. I did not even bother to read it. I knew that thread would quickly go downhill FAST.

Yeah, sometimes it's easy to see. I should know better by now than to even open certain threads, much less try to inject a word of reason or caution.

I just saw a great show last night about forgiveness. It was vvery interesting. Interesting too that this thread only has two pages; whereas some negative threads get over 40.

I've been onthe DIs for a while, and while some negativity has always been here. I think folks are in a negative funk right now. I guess venting on the DIS over some trivial issue is just a way of releaving fear they have over the economy, etc.

So let's do our part and keep this thread alive!

Hmmm... A fun time we helped another guest was when we had an ADR for five people at Rose and Crown near Illuminations time. Part of our group couldn't make it, and we were suddenly a party of three.

The tables along the water were only for parties of five. If we were three, we'd have to sit inside. No view.

A brainstorm hit me as there were a good number of walk ups trying to get tables (this was before DDP, when ADR's were more rare.) I asked if anyone wanted to join us and two clean cut looking guys spoke up. Turns out they were Westpoint cadets, and - small world - one was from the same area as us. We knew his sponsor! (This person would have only sponored a worthy candidate!) The dinner was great. We helped each other out, as there was little chance they were going to get a table otherwise, and no chance either of us would've been outside. The conversation we had was excellent.

Plus, somehow it seemed great that those young men who were bravely trying to serve our country should get a view of the fireworks just before they were set to graduate. I sometimes wonder where they are now.

(I have posted this story before...but it's one of my favorites. It was such a memorable meal! Plus the story has gained poignancy in the ensuing years with world events what they are.)

 

[SDSorority]

I helped a lady at the Jungle Cruise. She asked a CM how long the ride was and he just kept saying "2 weeks. 2 weeks". So I then told her the ACTUAL time and she was very grateful!

 

[dmccarty]

I helped a lady at the Jungle Cruise. She asked a CM how long the ride was and he just kept saying "2 weeks. 2 weeks". So I then told her the ACTUAL time and she was very grateful!

That is funny!

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Yeah, sometimes it's easy to see. I should know better by now than to even open certain threads, much less try to inject a word of reason or caution.
....

Reading the DIS is interesting to see other people's opinions. It amazes me how some people think. Or maybe do not. I was reading the comments on our local news website about farmers loosing money as people trespass their fields and steal their product. Some people were ok with the theft. Not surprising though. You can see similar conversations on the DIS and the rationalizations on why what they do is ok.

Back to kindness.....

At MK one day the kids wanted ice cream and we were the first customers at the cart for the day. The CM was an intern so we talked with her for awhile. Our youngest was chowing down on her Mickey Ears and was not paying attention so a big chunk of Mickey fell to the ground.

The CM gave her a new Mickey which was very nice to say the least.

I forgot another nice thing I did. Just before Mickey took a dive to the ground we rode SM. We got a great photo of me and the kids that I bought. While looking at the photo on the TV at the ride exit I noticed another family next to us. We exited the ride and got in line to get the photo. The family we had seen earlier had beat us to the photo buying line and was in front of us. They could not remember the number of their photo but since I had our number I was able to tell the CM that their photo was near ours number wise. Both the family and the CM were thankful that we helped since it saved them some time trying to find their photo.

At EPCOT one night we had made our way around to France. Love to say stuff like that. And I was looking for desert when I saw the stand selling crepes! And NO NO NO line!

Ok, there was one other person there. We got in the line on the correct side. A man walked up and "jumped" the line to get in front of us!

He was just looking at the prices and we started joking that he was trying to cut in line so we were going to have to fight it out in EPCOT! He said he gets a crepe every trip. Kinda like me getting a Dole Whip every trip to MK. Thanks BAWB.

Even though we were in line first we let him order first. Obviously he was a man on a mission that had priority!

And since he was an expert crepe eater I wanted to see what he would order. I was going for chocolate but he ordered strawberry. Who am I to doubt the man on a mission so I got strawberry too! Figured I would get chocolate next visit. Alas next visit and the line was too long.

Later,
Dan